GEORGETOWN, Del. — When a car dealership employee took John Hooper's rare Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for a joyride last month and spun it into a telephone pole, he left Hooper and the dealership with a 550-horsepower headache.

Hooper, a longtime Camaro collector who wrote a reference book about the original 1969 ZL1 models, pressed the dealership, First State Chevrolet, to find him a replacement. The Camaro ZL1 is the most powerful four-passenger sports car Chevrolet makes. The retail price of current models starts at $55,000.

Hooper said the dealership's managers denied responsibility for the wreck of his black 2012 model — which he'd bought there when it was new — pinning sole blame on the employee. That's when Hooper posted his tale of woe to the camaro5.com forums, leading to a firestorm of bad publicity for First State Chevrolet from like-minded Camaro fans.

"I don't care if the Virgin Mary came and got it," one commenter wrote. "It was entrusted to them."

Hundreds of angry phone calls came into the dealership after two widely read car enthusiast blogs, Jalopnik and Autoblog, summarized the dispute. The dealership's Facebook page was littered with caustic commentary as were Google reviews.

"The media is a monster," First State sales manager Bill Hansen said tersely on Wednesday. "Google our name and see what damage that's been done. The good thing is, this will all be brought to a close soon."

On that, at least, Hooper and the dealership agree.

The passenger-side front end of John Hooper's 2012 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 after it was crashed into a telephone pole.(Photo: Provided by John Hooper)

In an interview Wednesday, Hooper said a 2013 Camaro ZL1, painted Victory Red, is on its way to Delaware from Berger Chevrolet in Grand Rapids, Mich. Hooper says he's agreed to a deal with First State to buy it from them, making the same monthly payments he'd been making on his black 2012 model.

For Hooper, getting the car will end a hiccup in his love affair with Camaros. He was in high school when the original ZL1s came out in 1969. Only 69 of them were manufactured.

Hooper traded in two other Chevy Camaros, a 2011 and a 1969 SS, to buy the black ZL1 in 2012. It was a model Chevy resurrected after decades out of production, and he was overjoyed to have it, he said.

In November 2012, he took it to First State's service bays for a paint repair under warranty. On Dec. 16, he said, he got a call from the dealer: The car was totaled.

"I cried for about 10 minutes, looking at my black car, trashed," Hooper said Wednesday. "It was a very sentimental car. And I know the collectability of these cars."

State Police charged Eric Peterson, 42, of Georgetown, with careless driving and failure to have proof of insurance in the Dec. 15 accident involving Hooper's car. Peterson's trial on those charges is pending. Hansen said the dealership fired Peterson the first day he was due back at work after the crash.

The News Journal was unable to reach Peterson for comment.

“I don't care if the Virgin Mary came and got it. It was entrusted to (the dealership).”

Commenter on camaro5.com forum

As Hooper laid out the story in more than 20 camaro5.com postings, the dealership dragged its feet in providing insurance information to him and was unwilling to help him obtain a replacement. Eventually, Hooper said, the dealer offered to let him buy another 2012 ZL1 they'd located, but Hooper said the car was subpar, with an accident history and inferior wheels.

Autoblog and Jalopnik picked up the story Friday, increasing the acrimony directed at First State. Hooper says retired General Motors executives called him the following weekend to tell him GM was likely to step in to help resolve the dispute.

Hooper said he met with First State's management again on Monday. They told him a better replacement, a 2013 model, had been found at Berger Chevrolet, and he agreed to buy it. The dealership put a message on its website and its Facebook page, announcing a way had been found to "make our customers – the Hoopers – whole again."

"An unfortunate thing that happened to the consumer has turned into an unfortunate situation for the dealer as well," Hansen said Wednesday. "We feel we've done as best we can."

Hooper, for his part, said he's come to feel badly for the dealership's employees, many of whom he knows by name. When he went there Monday, he said, he brought flowers for the receptionist who'd been fielding bitter phone calls for days.

"It was really overwhelming," Hooper said of the online furor his posts kicked up. "I want to try to get everything back to normal. I don't want no hard feelings over all this."